Guillermo de la Cruz
Guillermo de la Cruz is the familiar of the vampire Nandor. He is a main character in ''What We Do in the Shadows'' (TV series). Biography Early life Guillermo was raised as a Catholic. He first became interested in vampires as a child after seeing Antonio Banderas portray Armand in Interview with a Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles. This was Guillermo’s first time seeing a Hispanic vampire in popular culture and Guillermo cosplayed as Armand. , He worked at Penera Bread , until he became Nandor’s familiar in the hope of one day being turned into a vampire. He moved into Nandor's residence in Staten Island with Laszlo, Nadja and Colin. Nandor worked Guillermo tirelessly and Guillermo considered himself to be a slave, having to stay awake during the day to lure and dispose of victims and night to serve the vampires. ''What We Do in the Shadows'' (TV series) Shortly after the documentary crew arrived, Nandor received a letter from Baron Afanas, a ferocious member of vampire royalty, saying that he will visit them soon. In preparation, Nandor asked Guillermo to bring over virgins for a feast. Guillermo invited two LARPers, Jenna and Jonathan, and pretended all the vampires in the house were also role players. Afanas was brought in a stone coffin to the vampires’ attic. As soon as he emerged, he ate Laszlo and Nadja’s familiar, June, making Guillermo nervous. The Baron lamented the vampires not having taken over New York, and threatened them with death if they did not do so by the time he reawakened. Colin then drained the energy of the virgins before the other vampires could eat them. That night, Nandor and Guillermo mused over the tenth anniversary of Guillermo’s servitude. Guillermo prepared to be transformed into a vampire, but Nandor instead rewarded him with a portrait of them both made from glitter. As Nandor returned to his coffin, Guillermo considered exposing the sunlight, but changed his mind. Guillermo brought the vampires to the LARPers again, but after watching them, the vampires decided that they would taste “too sad”. Nadja felt sorry for Jenna as the other members kept ignoring her, and Nadja turned her into a vampire. , Laszlo caught a werewolf, Arjan, in a trap in his garden. The vampires brought the unconscious werewolf inside and Guillermo nervously bandaged his leg. Arjan reverted back to human form and leapt out of the window. His pack later arrived with him and urinated all over the garden, causing a feud with the vampires. Nandor broke up a fight in their front yard and insisted they follow the rules of the truce laid out in the Staten Island Lycanthrope Vampire Agreement of 1993. In accordance of the rules, he as the strongest vampire fought against the strongest werewolf of the group, Toby, on the roof of an abandoned store. Nandor won the battle by throwing a squeaky bone toy off the roof, which Toby leapt after. The vampires flew away from the scene, leaving a frightened Guillermo behind. The werewolves however left him alone to look after Toby. , Reconsidering their plan to take over New York, the vampires decided to meet with Simon the Devious, the leader of the Manhattan vampires and owner of a popular vampire nightclub The Sassy Cat Club. There, Guillermo went into the familiars room and realised that the other familiars were also poorly treated. Guillermo was then intimidated by another vampire and Nandor did a sloppy job of defending him. Fed up, Guillermo left the club. Nandor met with Simon and he only agreed to join forces if Laszlo handed over his witch skin hat. Laszlo eventually agreed, and Simon went back on his word and kicked the roommates out of the club. Nandor found Guillermo outside and apologised, making up for it by carrying Guillermo while flying over Manhattan, only to accidentally drop him onto a food truck. The vampires visited him in hospital and Nandor told Guillermo he was a friend, before getting embarrassed and making Guillermo forget he said that. Laszlo retrieved his hat from an unconscious Simon at the hospital, and caused Guillermo to flatline every time he put it on. , While attempting to eat Phil, the vampires’ new neighbour, Laszlo entered his window in bat form only to be beaten unconscious with a broom by Phil’s girlfriend. As Nandor, Colin and Guillermo planned to get him out, Staten Island Animal Control arrived and took a caged Laszlo to their shelter. Nandor failed to hypnotise the animal control workers into freeing him, so he tried two other methods of infiltrating the holding room: flying into the window as a bat, which only resulted in him accidentally freeing the wrong bat, and transforming into a dog so he could get taken in, which left him trapped in a cage himself. Nandor and Laszlo were only freed when Guillermo called Nadja for help; she hypnotised the receptionist, Bobby, into letting her in. , Colin sensed angry energy from the attic and realised Afanas was finally awakening. Nandor sent Guillermo to bring him red roses. The Baron requested to have a ‘night on the town’ with Nandor, Laszlo and Nadja. The vampires became intoxicated from drinking the blood of drunken and drugged humans. They just about arrived back at the flat as dawn approached, only for Afanas to burn to death in the sunlight when Guillermo opened the front door with the flowers. , The following night, the vampires buried Afanas in the topiary garden, with no memory of how he was killed. A floating woman arrived and informed the group that they were to be put on trial under the Vampiric Council for their crimes. She led the group to the Temple of Blood-Devourers and made Guillermo wait in the familiars lounge until he was called to testify. The other familiars shared their experiences and admitted they knew very few familiars who became vampires. When Guillermo was called in to testify, he confessed to the murder and the vampires did not believe him as they thought he was either incapable of killing a vampire or lying to protect Nandor. As the council contemplated eating Guillermo, an idea which Nadja agreed with, Nandor confessed to the crime to keep Guillermo safe. The three vampires were sentenced to be killed by being locked in a well and slowly exposed to sunlight. Guillermo was left to escape the underground temple on his own and he accidentally impaled a vampire assistant, Ludwig, on an LED lamp holder after scaring him with his cross. When Guillermo reached the surface, he found Colin, who saved the vampires by shielding the well from the sunlight with a beach umbrella. Guillermo freed the vampires by smuggling them out in a box while they were in bat form. , When Nandor finally realised that his homeland of Al Quolanudar no longer existed, he felt lost and depressed. Guillermo suggested he finish applying for American citizenship and tried to help him revise for the test. While doing this, Guillermo discovered that Jenna was now a vampire and was infuriated that she was transformed before him. Nandor later failed the citizenship test and could not physically recite the word “God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. He bemoaned his failure, causing Guillermo to snap and tell him to stop complaining because he was a vampire. Nandor felt better hearing this and declared himself to be a proud vampire who didn’t need citizenship, failing to realise Guillermo’s hint. , The vampires were asked to host the Bi-Annual Vampire Orgy. Laszlo and Nadja ordered Guillermo to act as a ceiling mirror and organise their sex toys, causing him to become frustrated and storm to his room. Nandor tried to make him feel better by pretending to listen to his problems. The two went shopping for supplies and Guillermo bumped into Jeremy, his friend since high school. Nandor became attracted to Jeremy’s perceived virginity and chronic nosebleed problem and requested Jeremy come to the orgy. Desperate to become a vampire and having already exhausted the town’s supply of virgins, Guillermo invited Jeremy to the “party”. Jeremy arrived and Guillermo hid in his room. Guillermo felt more and more guilty and began to have a panic attack. He ran to save Jeremy as Nadja was about to unveil him to the vampires, only to witness Jeremy having sex with another vampire, Constantin. Disappointed, all the vampire guests left, leaving Jeremy safe. , Guillermo began to feel more lonely and more like a "Renfield" than an Armand. Guillermo sent the DNA of himself and the other vampires to be tested for their ancestry. Laszlo and Nadja refused to look at their results, while Colin discovered that he was 100% white. Guillermo’s test revealed himself to be mostly Mestizo, but also 3.12% Dutch as a descendent of the legendary vampire hunter Van Helsing. Having killed two vampires already, Guillermo began to wonder if his destiny was really to be a vampire hunter and kept his test results a secret from the vampires. Laszlo asked Guillermo to get garden stakes to support his new topiary design and berated Guillermo for their resemblance to wooden stakes. Nandor discovered he had 200,000 direct living descendants, one of which being a childless woman named Madelaine Darbish living on Staten Island. Despite being warned not to by Colin and Guillermo, Nandor flew up to her window to greet her, not realising she was 94 years old. Madelaine screamed and dropped dead at the sight. The vampires attended her funeral in a church and Nandor began to burn at the religious surroundings. Guillermo tried to extinguish the flames, but accidentally threw holy water at him, worsening his injuries. An angry Nandor extended Guillermo’s servitude by a whole year. As Nandor slept, Guillermo contemplated the use of the wooden stakes and then threw them across the room in disgust. To Guillermo’s horror, the stakes pierced the nearby portraits of Nandor, Laszlo and Nadja. Behind the Scenes *Guillermo's first name is a reference to Guillermo del Toro, a fellow Mexican and the director of vampire films Blade II and Cronos. *Guillermo’s surname, de la Cruz, is revealed in “Ancestry” during the scene where he checks his DNA results. His full name therefore translates to “Protector of the cross”, another indication that he may become a vampire hunter. *When asked about Guillermo's sexuality, Harvey Guillén stated, "I can certainly say that identify him as queer because he always has borderline homoerotic moments with his master". "Harvey Guillén Is the Queer, Human Heart of What We Do in the Shadows" - Advocate *He shares traits with Deacon's familiar Jackie for both of them seek to become a vampire. She successfully became one by Nick, while Guillermo has not accomplished his goal. Appearances *''What We Do in the Shadows'' (TV series) **"Pilot" **"City Council" **"Werewolf Feud" **"Manhattan Night Club" **"Animal Control" **"Baron's Night Out" **"The Trial" **"Citizenship" **"The Orgy" **"Ancestry" References Category:Characters Category:Humans Category:Familiars Category:What We Do in the Shadows (TV series) characters